Cara Feain-Ryan

The Shanghai Diamond League will be a special event.  We’ll see the greatest number of Australians at a Diamond League, with 16 competing in individual events, including Luke Boyes (800m) and Seth O’Donnell (3000m) making their debuts.  This includes five (yes five!) women in the 1500m – the most ever for Australians in a single event.

Shanghai (or Keqiao) starts the Diamond League year which will look a bit different for a number of reasons.

Firstly, there is no Grand Slam Track.  The largely US-based series of events set-up last year by Michael Johnson, basically in competition with the Diamond League, had an ignominious ending.  Finances were its major fault line in the end, but were also what shook the Diamond League, and arguably resulted in increased prize money.

This year the League has doubled the number of Diamond+ events at each meet, now eight.  Diamond+ events have double the prizemoney for the winner who receives US$20k instead of US$10k, although prizemoney for other placings doesn’t double during the meets this year.

Without GST we’ll also likely see a greater numbers of USA athletes joining the Diamond League circuit and seeking qualification for the finals.  An overview of how the Diamond League points scoring works is here.

Also it’s an “off-season”, meaning there’s no Olympics or World Championships.  Athletes may feel more emboldened to seek faster times and try different events, rather than a more cautious build-up for the major championships.

We’ve already seen Josh Kerr announce his 222 mile attempt for the London Diamond League and Faith Kipyegon is going after the mile world record at Prefontaine.  Rai Benjamin looks to be focusing on the 400m flat, and there’s much anticipation for Femke Bol’s first 800m at a Diamond League.

While not a major Championship, there is the new World Ultimate event, announced around the time of GST’s emergence.  To be held in Budapest in September, that’s another incentive for athletes to compete in the Diamond League, given participation at World Ultimate is based on world rankings, and the best way to gain ranking points is through a good performance at the Diamond League.

A more attractive and competitive Diamond League is great for the fans but may mean it makes it harder for Australian athletes to get a start.  Last year we saw the most number of Australian compete in Diamond League events (26 athletes), and these two initial Chinese events (Xiamen next week) provide the best chance for Australians to prove their credentials and be invited back.

Shanghai Diamond League

The broadcast will start at 9pm (aest) on Saturday, but a few athletes will be well into their events by then. 

Liam Adcock made the world pay attention this time last year when he almost won at the opening Diamond League in Xiamen.  He then went on to win a classic Diamond League event in Rome, beating Mattia Furlani on his final jump.  In this field he’s boasting the equal seasons best, but is joined by World Champion Furlani, and three other competitors in the world's top 10.  Not a point scoring event for the Diamond League finals, but points count for world rankings, and Adcock will be keen to shore-up an invitation for World Ultimate (currently ranked 10th with 8 spots available)

Speaking of world-ranked colleagues, this pole vault troupe seems to travel as one.  But the great camaraderie amongst the vaulters has its downside – you’re always competing against the absolute world best.  At Shanghai eight of the top ten have gathered.  As the namesake of the league suggests, pressure makes diamonds, and this is true for Kurtis Marschall who first competed in the League in 2017 when he was just 20 years old.  Being comfortable in the camaraderie cauldron has seen him rise above the pressure to shine and win three global championship medals, as well as stand on six Diamond League podiums – the 7th best by an Australian male.

Also before the broadcast will be the 5000m for women, where Rose Davies and Maudie Skyring compete against one of the world’s greats, Faith Kipyegon.  The pace will be on and both Davies and Skyring will see it as a good chance to test the limits, after some tactical racing recently in less than ideal conditions.  Aside from placing in the top eight and getting some Diamond League points, Skyring will be looking for a sub 15:13 time to move ahead of Jessica Hull in the Commonwealth rankings and #3 Australian.  Davies looks safe for Commonwealth consideration, but could boost her world ranking to position for the 12 spots at World Ultimate.

The first Australian we’ll see in the broadcast window is Cara Feain-Ryan in a large (20!) and highly competitive 3000m steeplechase.  With no steeplechase events at World Ultimate the Diamond League final becomes the major focus for these athletes, which explains the big field. Feain-Ryan will also be looking to improve her #10 Commonwealth ranking with a sub 9:30 effort.

The men’s 800m is probably the most open event for the meet.  Peter Bol faces the man who finished ahead of him at the last Commonwealth Games, Wyclife Kinyamal who actually holds the meet record in Shanghai (1:43.91).  They are joined by Ben Pattison as the 1:42 men in the field.  Luke Boyes has his debut Diamond League and given the form he showed during the domestic season, you’d expect he’ll be in amongst it.

Matthew Denny, two-time Diamond League champion, is joined by the other discus champions from the previous 7 years, save for world record holder Mykolas Alekna.  German Steven Richter has emerged this year as a contender to challenge, boosting his PB by five metres in Ramona, when finishing just 4cm behind of Denny's 74.04m effort.  On the back of Ramona, could Denny be looking at Alkena's Diamond League record of 71.70m?  Valerie Allman was just over a metre off the women's record last year, so conditions can be favourable in Shanghai for big throws.  Jessica Hull is the only Australian currently holding a Diamond League record with her 2000m World Record time of 5:19.70 set in Monaco in 2024.

Torrie Lewis will have memories of the first Diamond League event two years ago, and her surprise victory in the 200m.  Hard to forget the immediate post-race footage of Lewis looking to celebrate with the other athletes, who seemed unaware or unwilling to recognise that the 19-year-old Australian on the outside lane had never been headed.  Sha’carri Richardson and Anavia Battle were there two years ago, and run again in Shanghai, in a race where interest will also focus on Shericka Jackson’s early season form.

Seth O’Donnell is the other Australian to debut, racing the 3000m in a big field.  It was a much smaller field last year in Folksom, Sweden where O’Donnell chased Andreas Almgren, with both setting their PBs over 3000m.  Almgren has been setting things alight on the roads this year, and faces strong Kenyan and Ethiopian competition, including the two Cheruiyot’s who bring their 1500m speed.

One of the races of the meet will see Lachlan Kennedy take on some of the world’s fastest.  Watch for the start between Kennedy and Christian Colemen – both explosive out of the blocks.  Some commentators are buying into the “let’s see how Kennedy runs overseas” tag line, which is strange given he first broke 10 seconds in Kenya, and won silver at World Indoors in China.  Let's see Kennedy continue to rise amongst the worlds best.

Don’t go to bed before 10.30pm.  The women’s 1500m is an Australian special – 5 of the 6 all-time Australians racing in something of a re-match of the thwarted 1500m Nationals final.  That was tactical affair, with Abbey Caldwell & Claudia Hollingsworth able to unleash their kicks, whereas this will be paced and gives Jessica Hull a chance to display her brazen front-running.  The question will be, can the others hang on?  Kenya’s Dorcus Ewoi and Ethiopia’s Birke Haylom will be keen to spoil any thoughts of a unique Australian 1-2-3, and there's enough talent in this field that could see Faith Kipyegon's meet record of 3:56.82 under threat. 

Commonwealth Rankings

Good to remember this is a big weekend for athletes to improve their Commonwealth ranking and therefore nomination for the Commonwealth Games team given the qualifying period closes 31-May.  At the moment if all Australians ranked in the top 10 were selected, this would reach the maximum team size of 63.  Some with a performance standard actually fall outside a top 10 rank, so selectors have their work cut-out in this discretionary phase, balancing medal chances according to the rankings, with high performers with the standard. 

There are other key events this weekend where we’ll see Australian athletes push their claims.

SEIKO Golden Grand Prix, Tokyo

Coming off his ninth fastest ever 400m relay split of 43.12 at World Relays, Reece Holder faces a crack 400m field including Mazala Samukonga, Vernon Norwood and Rai Benjamin.  His relay team mates, two of whom also split sub-44s, are racing in Darwin at the Oceania Championships next week, and there’s something of a clock ticking for one of them to break the National 400m record of 44.38 set by Darren Clark way back in 1988.

In the 1500m, Jude Thomas, Alex Stitt and Callum Davies are all seeded highly and it could turn into a race between the three of them for the win.  For the winner there's prizemoney, quality world ranking points given its a category A meet, but not sure if a watch is also on offer.

After his stunning 20.21 PB at Nationals, Calab Law continued that form into World Relays and will be keen to post another strong claim for a spot in the individual 200m event at the Commonwealth Games.

While not yet reaching the heights of previous years, Yual Reath seems to enjoy the overseas events, and it was in this event two years ago he PB’ed with 2.30m.  The field includes seven other 2.30m+ jumpers including Sanghyeok Woo and Shelby McEwen.

You get the sense there’s a big one brewing for Chris Mistrevski, having been consistently around the eight metre mark this year.  He jumped his second best jump ever in Japan (8.24m) and something similar would solidify his top 10 Commonwealth ranking.

NCAA Conference Championships

For some Australian athletes in the USA, the Commonwealth qualification adds extra significance for what is already a big weekend with the NCAA Div I Conference Championships.

In the Big TEN Championship we’ll see Hayley Kitching (Penn State) & Edward Nketia (USC) compete.  Nketia has his sights set on sub-10 after his extraordinary 9.84 (+2.8).  Kitching is currently ranked #16 in the Commonwealth, but is fourth Australian, although one of those is Jessica Hull who may not seek an 800m spot.  Can Kitching challenge her PB of 1:59.22 from earlier this year and push into the 1:58 territory?

Marley Raikiwasa (Auburn) recently threw a discus PB (57.53m) which ranks her #11 in Commonwealth.  Competing in the SEC Conference this weekend, she will look to improve on that and push into the top 10.

Ben Conacher (Virginia Tech) set his pole vault PB last year (5.61m) but has struggled to get to those heights this year, unfortunately no heighting at Nationals.  A vault over 5.50m at the ACC Championships this weekend would put him well inside the Commonwealth top 10.

With over 100 Australians now competing for colleges in the NCAA, you can find their college schedules and Conference Championship links here. 

Still to come ... 

Overall a fascinating weekend for Australian athletics, followed closely next week by the Oceania Championships where a strong team of Australians have been selected to compete. 

There's still plenty of big meets before the end of the month (two more Diamond Leagues, some major USA and European meets, and NCAA Regional finals) so make sure you add your favourite athletes and meets to your watchlist and you won't miss a thing.

Enjoy!

The countdown has well and truly started as athletes tailor their preparations depending on their next target.

This weekend we have plenty of domestic highlights stemming from the two days of the Adelaide Invitational action (Friday & Saturday evenings) as well as the Australian Half-Marathon Race Walking Championships (Sunday morning).  See below for a preview of these meets.

Overseas some of the Australian contingent competing in the NCAA (almost 100 in total at last count) are focused on the NCAA National Indoors this weekend, with details for Div I and Div II finals on our website.  Another group are spending the weekend in Italy for the World University Cross Country Championships.

And things don’t slow down next week. The Australian team has been selected for the World Indoors Championships in Poland.  While relatively small, the team of eleven boasts seven international medallists and two debutants.

Then two weeks from now we get to visit / watch the super-exhilarating Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne with plenty of big names competing.

A lot of athletes will clearly be aiming to peak at the Australian Championships in Sydney, only one month from now.  With Australian titles, as well as Commonwealth Games selections on the line, there’ll be strong fields as well as the excitement of competing on the new Sydney track.

The week after that the juniors have their own Australian U20 Championships in Brisbane.  With over 100 athletes now having achieved a World U20 standard in their event, the selection trials will be high stakes, with first two on the podium getting the automatic selection in the majority of the events.

And no respite for some after this.  World Relays are in seven weeks, and the first China Diamond League (Shanghai) in nine weeks.  Then it will be interesting to see who makes the trip to Darwin for the Oceania Championships, ten weeks from now, where the points on offer can have a big impact on an athlete's world ranking.

The Commonwealth Games in Glasgow are just over four months away, with the World U20 Championships a week after.  Six months away from the World Ultimate Championships In Budapest, a week after which there is the World Road Running Championships in Copenhagen.

Despite some saying this is an “off” year for athletics, that’s an awful lot of major international championships to prepare for.  For now a preview of some of this weekends activity:

NCAA National Indoor Finals

Australian podium success at the NCAA National Indoor Championships (Div I) has come relatively recently - with David McNeill & Ryan Fosters' podiums in 2010 likely the earliest.  Success has been solely in the distance events - which makes Eddie Nketia's participation in the 60m finals this weekend of note, also given his transfer of allegiance from New Zealand to Australia in late in 2025.

The top ranked Australian going into these champs is Hayley Kitching in the 800m (ranked #2) - the last victory by an Australia at NCAA Indoors was Charlie Hunter in the men's 800m in 2021.  Tomas Palfrey has a busy weekend having qualified for the mile and 3000m, and will join his college's distance medley relay (DMR) team. Thomas Diamond also goes in the mile and the DMR, with other possible DMR team members: Imogen Gardiner, Ben Thomas, Bailey Habler & Archie Noakes.

In the Div II finals, Bec Bennett is ranked #3 in the 400m and Harrison Boyd #4 in the mile (adjusted for altitude time). Flynn Pumpa will run the mile and likey the DMR.  Good to see some field athletes qualifying with Amber Lawless in the Shot Put and Isabella Davie in the Pentathlon.

Australian Half Marathon Race Walking Championships

These Championships are the main selection trials for the World Race Walking Team Championships to be held in Brasilia, 12th April.

In the U20 events up to three athletes can be selected.  For the junior men, 10000m race walk world record holder Isaac Beacroft would be expected to take the title, with the next two spots to be fought out amongst Owen Toyne, John Ronan and Riley Coughlan who all have the time standard.

In the junior women's Zoe Woods will go in as favourite but Sienna Pitcher and Milly Sharpe will push hard, and all three have the standard.

In  the senior events up to five athletes can be selected (with three scoring in the teams event).  While Jemima Montag is absent, the women have strong representation with Rebecca Henderson, Elizabeth McMillen, Olivia Sandery and Allanah Pitcher all under the time standard.  Sandery has the edge over the longer distances, and won the Marathon Championship in November, while McMillen and Henderson have tended to battle out the shorter races.  This will be a fascinating contest.

As to will be the men's half marathon.  Rhydian Cowley comfortably won the Marathon Championship, but over the shorter distance Timothy Fraser and Declan Tingay make it more competitive. Will Thompson and Kyle Swan will be in the mix and also have the standard.

Adelaide Invitational

The third event of the Summer Series sees some fascinating head-to-heads and an important hit-out for many athletes in the lead up to the Maurie Plant Meet and then National Championships.

On the track …

We’ll start with the end of the program feature event, the men’s 200m, with an exciting match-up between Australia’s two fastest men currently over the 400m: Reece Holder (44.53) and Aidan Murphy (44.81).  Murphy has a faster PB than Holder over 200m (20.41 to 20.48), although to be fair Holder has likely never raced a ‘feature’ 200m event where there’s added incentive to perform.  They’ll be joined by World Championship 400m finalist, Jacory Patterson (USA), as well as recent National 200m record-breaker, Tommy Te Puni (NZL).

In the 100m races, a number of athletes are backing up after the relay teams competed on Friday.  Jacob Despard, Christopher Ius and Josh Azzopardi from the winning Green team (in 38.34) face off against Connor Bond & Joseph Ayoade from the Gold team which unfortunately was a dnf.

In the women’s 100m, Ebony Lane, Olivia Rose Inkster & Chloe Mannix-Power from the winning Green team (43.37) encounter the fastest woman in Australia this year, Zara Hagan (11.16), along with Olivia Hastings and Georgia Harris from the Gold team (44.06)

Exciting to see Jemma Pollard and Ellie Beer have their second head-to-head this year over 400m, with the last one in Perth resulting in Pollard being pushed to a new PB in order to take the win.

In the men’s 400m, Luke van Ratingen will take the start-line for the first time this season, bolstering the talent pool before the World Relay Championships. He has some stiff international competition from Kyle Gale (BAH) and National record-holder Lex Revell-Lewis (NZL).

Also taking the start-line for the first time this season is sub-2 minutes athlete, Carley Thomas in the women’s 800m, where she faces two athletes who have seen many start-lines this season in Abbey Caldwell and Jaylah Hancock-Cameron. Also watch the match-up in this race between the juniors, with Ivy Boothroyd who had a breakthrough PB in Hobart and will race again against her main junior challenger in Emma Fryga.

In the men’s 800m, Australian 2024 Champion Luke Boyes takes on the leading junior talent Daniel Williams, who has his eyes set on the World U20 Championships.  Williams also has his eyes on a stint in the NCAA with Penn State University, to be coached by former Australian record-holder in the middle-distance events, Ryan Foster.

Speaking of the NCAA, there’s an alumni match-up in the men’s 1500m, between Alexander Stitt, Jackson Sharp, Jesse Hunt and Toby Gillen, the lead contenders. Again there’s the race within the race with a host of quick juniors competing. Charles Barrett has recently been successful in staying ahead of Alexander Cameron-Smith and Lucas Chis, but will this continue?

Another NCAA alumni, Klara Dess, starts favourite in the women’s 1500m and faces a number of junior women including New Zealand’s Scarlett Robb, and Australian juniors Milla Roberts and Sarah Baker, with local Hannah Tourneur in the mix. Another local to watch is 15-year-old Amelia Sheridan, too young to qualify for this year’s World U20 Championships, but running under the standards anyway.

Last night saw the women’s 3000m Steeplechase with a win to Cara Feain-Ryan (9:34.89) and Tessa Ebert grab a PB and another World U20 qualifier (10:05.26).  In the men's race today a strong Japanese contingent are likely to maintain a fast pace which Ed Trippas and Ben Buckingham will look to benefit from.

Ashley Moloney takes on his second 400m hurdles event, after the Hobart debut where he showed how difficult it is to get the pacing right between hurdles.  Despite this he still ran a very respectabke 52.70, and sub-50 second man Matthew Hunt will know if Moloney’s close after the last hurdle he’ll be storming home fast.

To the field …

Those in Adelaide get to the meet early, because you’ll see that 70 metre mark in the discus get well and truly peppered.  Matthew Denny of course will be partly responsible but he’s joined by two international throwers who can get the disc out there, regular visitor to Adelaide, Lawrence Okoye (GBR) and Claudio Romero (CHI).  Darcy Miller and Etienne Rousseau will look to use this strong competition to crack the 60 metre mark.

Taryn Gollshewsky also has international company, Nanaka Kori (JPN) and Nora Monie (CMR), who have both thrown over 60 metres and will provide strong competition for Gollshewsky.  There will be a close competition between the juniors, with Chelsy Wayne, Jessica Johnston and Lauren Kelly all boasting PBs around the 52 metres mark.

A classic match-up in the women's long jump with Australian record-holder Brooke Buschkuehl on the come-back trail, up against the World U20 Champion Delta Amidzovski.  In Melbourne last month, Amidzovski took an early lead but Buschkuehl was gaining in her last few jumps – keep an eye on this contest as it unfolds.

In men's pole vault, while they have the same PB (5.53m), the last time Aiden Princena-White beat Dalton di Medio was in Adelaide two years ago. Could history repeat?

Shemaiah James has made it his quest this year to break his long-standing triple jump PB of 16.42m – will today be the day?  He’ll have Connor Murphy to provide strong competition, along with fellow 16 metre jumpers, Liam Glew and Awan Akuen.  In the women’s triple jump on Friday, Desleigh Owusu recorded another solid win (13.43m +1.1). 

Other meetings

That's a solid offering of athletics for this weekend.  We also have the FISU World Cross Country with a 16-member team competing (will link the livestream if we find one).  There's also the Queensland State Championships with some interest in the sprint events (results can be found here)

Enjoy!